Planning a dual PVC tower bong.

I was wondering how powerful a pump I would need for this setup.



Comments/Questions about the setup?

wow that sounds like an awesome idea youwill have to let me know how that performs, im sure any current water pump will do but that really is an awesome setup you got going

I wanted dual towers in that configuration for a few reasons.

1. When I go to LAN parties, it wont be a knock over.

2. Two towers have got to be better than one

3. Showerheads constrict waterflow, even if you drill out the restrictor.
Two showerheads will be less restrictive = less stress on pump.

4.My computer unit will seat in the middle of the two towers, where the fan on each tower will be controlled via baybus on the front of the system.
It will look cool

Lammy said:

... 1. When I go to LAN parties, it wont be a knock over. ...

Click to expand...

You're going to carry that thing around?

With an open loop setup like this, the pump must have a head (pressure capacity) that is at the very least the same than the height the water will be lifted... otherwise you will be finished before you begin. The reality is that you will want to have a head capacity that is significantly higher than this so as to have some remaining capacity to move the water through the loop at a reasonable rate. If you give me some more accurate numbers to work with (i.e. the height of the two towers) I can perhaps be a bit more specific.

What kind of fan configuration are you doing, just 1 on the inlet or are you doing a top mounted like most industrial cooling towers? You may want to think about using 2 pumps, a circulation pump to go from the base of the tower through the cooling loop and then a pump with high head to be the tower pump and take the water all the way up then split for each tower. I would also suggest using 3/4 inch tubing or even 1 inch for better water flow.

I might go 5/8 or 3/4. What type of pump would you suggest?

I plan for each tower to be about 3' tall.

Lammy said:

I might go 5/8 or 3/4. What type of pump would you suggest?

Click to expand...

And again I ask, how tall are your two towers?

3-4 feet

Was that there the whole time? I'd aim for somewhere in the neighbourhood of 10 feet of pump head... and a reasonable max flow too.

I was origionally thinking of using a mag3 pump. maybe a mag5 or 7? Or a Via 2600.

Stay away from the Mag 5... for our purposes it's simply a crappier version of the Mag 3. The Mag 7 would work too, though both these pumps have a flatter pump curve than is ideal. A Swiftech MCP600 would work well, as would any of the smaller Iwaki's, though both of these options are fairly pricey.

I would use an Iwaki pump for that setup.

Here's an Iwaki flow chart on this site.

http://www.aquadirect.com/catalog/pumps/moreinfo/iwakiflowchart.htm


Iwaki Quick Glossary
http://www.aquadirect.com/catalog/pumps/iwaki.htm
WMD: Made in USA

MD: Made in Japan. Much quieter than WMD models

RLTX: Circulation Only. For use as return pumps.

RLT: Pressure Pumps. Used for pressure applications such as canister filters.

I used to run a single tower bong that was about 5-6 feet and I can tell you that 2 towers that are 3-4 feet is gross overkill. Usually in overclocking/cooling, there is no such thing but in this situation I actually regretted my setup being so effective because I could easily evaporate 1.5 gallons of water in an afternoon. I didn't want to run tap water so you can imagine my dismay at the thought of buying over 10 gallons of distilled water a week. Also because it evaporated water so fast, it gave me less of a safety margin in how long I had to refill the resevoir, even though it was a decent size. I once went downstairs to watch a movie and when I came back up I realized I was probably 20 mins from running dry. Added to that the thought of legionnaires or other airborne bacteria that could result and my inability to find an antibacterial solution that wouldn't foam like a mofo and the project turned out to be rather shortlived. It was fun though and I got fantastic temperatures but if I were going to do it over I might look into a different method. Check out this thread for a great evaporative cooling alternative http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?s=&threadid=180552 If you do persue the tower idea though, I'd get at least an iwaki md15r. Definitely plan on a large res with pump intake at the bottom to prevent sucking bubbles as there will be alot of disturbance in the water where it is falling. A automatic filler system w/ tap water and a ducted exhaust for the water vapor through an outside window would be ideal. Good luck.

err. I cant see the picture I posted anymore. Its dead

If you saw the setup I had, the pump was suppose to be submersed in a position where there would be no turbulence in the water to avoid sucking up air bubbles.

Thanks for you input, I will rethink my design.